''This Beautiful City'' is a 2007 Canadian drama film written, directed, produced, and edited by
Ed Gass-Donnelly
Ed Gass-Donnelly (born August 17, 1977) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His first full-length film, ''This Beautiful City'', was released in 2008 and nominated for four Genies at the 29th Genie Awards. In January 2011 Gas ...
. It premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival and had a general theatrical release in 2008.
The film depicts the lives of five disparate characters in
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Stre ...
. Johnny (
Aaron Poole
Aaron Poole (born March 17, 1977) is a Canadian actor.
Early life
Poole grew up in Barrie, Ontario and attended Barrie Central Collegiate. He is a graduate of the Etobicoke School of the Arts and George Brown College. He is of Italian descent.
...
) is a recovering
crack cocaine
Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The ''Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment'' calls ...
addict trying to convince his
prostitute
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
girlfriend Pretty (
Kristin Booth
Kristin Booth (born August 28, 1974) is a Canadian actress, born in Kitchener, Ontario. She graduated with Honours BFA from Ryerson Theatre School at Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1997.
Career
Kristin Booth grew up in Kinkora, near the S ...
) to move with him to a new city so they can make a clean break from their old lives, while Harry (
Noam Jenkins
Noam Jenkins is a Canadian actor, voice actor, and television director. He is best known for his portrayal as Aiden Pearce in the 2014 video game ''Watch Dogs'', and Detective Jerry Barber on Global's ''Rookie Blue
''Rookie Blue'' is a Canad ...
) and Carol (
Caroline Cave
Caroline Cave is a Canadians, Canadian film, television and stage actor, known for her roles in the films ''This Beautiful City'', ''One Week (2008 film), One Week'', ''The War Bride'', ''Six Figures (film), Six Figures'' and ''Saw VI'', and the te ...
) are a wealthy couple. Events are set in motion when Carol falls from the balcony of her condo in an apparent suicide attempt, landing just metres away from Johnny and Pretty in the alleyway below. She survives, but Peter ( Stuart Hughes), a police detective, finds her and the group's lives begin to intertwine.
Cast
*
Aaron Poole
Aaron Poole (born March 17, 1977) is a Canadian actor.
Early life
Poole grew up in Barrie, Ontario and attended Barrie Central Collegiate. He is a graduate of the Etobicoke School of the Arts and George Brown College. He is of Italian descent.
...
as Johnny
*
Kristin Booth
Kristin Booth (born August 28, 1974) is a Canadian actress, born in Kitchener, Ontario. She graduated with Honours BFA from Ryerson Theatre School at Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1997.
Career
Kristin Booth grew up in Kinkora, near the S ...
as Pretty
*
Caroline Cave
Caroline Cave is a Canadians, Canadian film, television and stage actor, known for her roles in the films ''This Beautiful City'', ''One Week (2008 film), One Week'', ''The War Bride'', ''Six Figures (film), Six Figures'' and ''Saw VI'', and the te ...
as Carol
*
Noam Jenkins
Noam Jenkins is a Canadian actor, voice actor, and television director. He is best known for his portrayal as Aiden Pearce in the 2014 video game ''Watch Dogs'', and Detective Jerry Barber on Global's ''Rookie Blue
''Rookie Blue'' is a Canad ...
Tony Nappo
Antonio Nappo is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Four Brothers'', '' Saw II'', ''Land of the Dead'', '' Bad Blood'', and '' Born to be Blue''. He also is the voice of Jimmy Falcone (McDougal) in ''Fugget About It''.
Biograp ...
as Crack
* Jefferson Mappin as Phil
*
Philip Akin
Philip Akin (born April 18, 1950) is a Canadian actor.
Akin has had roles in major American films such as '' The Sum of All Fears'', ''S.W.A.T.'', and '' Get Rich or Die Tryin. He has also done much voice work, including voicing the character ...
as Police Chief
* Christopher Cordell as Green Jacket Jock
* Brian Frank as Steve
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack includes songs by
Bry Webb
Bryan Webb (born 1977), sometimes credited as Bry Webb, is a Canadian singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for the indie rock band Constantines.
History
Webb began his musical career playing in the emo band Shoulder in 1994, re ...
Buck 65
Richard Terfry (born March 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian alternative hip hop artist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, countr ...
Sebastien Grainger
Sebastien Alexandre Grainger (born 11 April 1979) is a Canadian singer and musician, best known as drummer and singer of the alternative rock duo Death from Above and the singer and guitarist for his band Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains. H ...
,
Andre Ethier
Andre Everett Ethier (; born April 10, 1982) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2006 to 2017 and is second all-time in post-season appearances as a Do ...
Emilie Mover
Emilie Mover is a Canadian singer-songwriter who writes music in genres such as folk, jazz, and children's music. She has released a number of solo albums in diverse styles, and in 2013 her solo album ''The Stella and Sam Album'' won the Juno A ...
and
Dave MacKinnon
David Donaldson MacKinnon (born 23 May 1956) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played for Dundee, Partick Thistle, Rangers, Airdrieonians, Kilmarnock and Forfar Athletic.
Football career
MacKinnon started his career at Ar ...
.
Critical reception
On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 14%, based on seven reviews. Ray Bennett of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' said, "The film is contrived but powerful. A mood of underlying dread gives each scene extra tension and its gritty portrait of how urban life at all levels can ground people down is striking."
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for four Genies at the 29th Genie Awards, including Best Actor (Poole), Best Original Song (Bry Webb, "Big Smoke"), Best Sound and Best Sound Editing.